Urban Decay Vice4 Palette – Review, Swatches, & Looks

I’ve been hearing amazing things about Urban Decay’s limited edition holiday palettes for years now, but this year was the first time I’ve actually taken the plunge and purchased one of their Vice palettes — the Vice4, to be exact. If you’ve been wanting to hear if this colorful, sparkly palette is worth the hefty price tag (from a person who is new to the brand and their eyeshadows), then today’s post is definitely for you!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Before we dive into today’s post, I just wanted to let you know that I am hosting a giveaway on my Instagram page to celebrate reaching 1,000 followers. If you don’t already follow me there…now is a good time to do it! I’m giving away a whole bunch of beauty products — including a Limited Edition MAC product that you can’t buy in stores anymore!! 😉 Love you gals!

About the Limited Edition Vice4 Eyeshadow Palette

Retail: $60

Because there’s no such thing as too much Vice, Urban Decay created Vice4 – loaded with 20 addictively gorgeous, never-before-seen shades of their iconic Eyeshadow. This limited-edition palette even includes a huge mirror, a double-ended brush and a coordinating bag. And unlike most sequels, Vice4 will keep you hooked and coming back for more.

Urban Decay channeled all the darkly gorgeous, dimensional hues of an oil slick (inspired by their vintage shade name Oil Slick) into Vice4 – filled with rich, deep jewel tones. The palette features a stunning array of colors and a wide range of finishes, from buttery-smooth mattes and shimmering metallics to shades laced with micro-glitter. Plus, each Eyeshadow in Vice4 features UD’s Pigment Infusion System, a proprietary blend of ingredients for rich, velvety, blendable color that lasts (and sparkle that doesn’t fall).

Vice4 comes in an extra slim case topped with a dimensional web of broken-down facets layered over a matte black lid. Rich, metallic inks give the case a mesmerizing, oil-slick effect and hint at the shades inside. Use the coordinating bag to keep Vice4 protected (and to keep prying eyes out of your prized palette), or use it to stash your brushes and other makeup essentials. Also included along with the palette: a double-ended Shadow and Crease Brush.

My Review of Urban Decay’s Vice 4 Palette

Can we just talk about the packaging for a moment? As mentioned, I’ve always heard about their holiday Vice palettes, seen them, but never actually purchased any. Well, the moment I saw the design for this palette….I knew I was going to be buying it. It’s just so beautiful! I could move this palette around for hours just to see all the vibrant colors dance across the top — it truly looks like an oil slick! Urban Decay knocked it out of the park this year on packaging, no doubt about it!

Okay, moving on to what’s inside the palette now….the eyeshadows! Before I start getting too long winded trying to express my thoughts on this palette, let’s run over them all really quickly. As mentioned, there are 20 different types of eyeshadows ranging from matte, to shimmery, to glittery.

Each swatch was gone over twice to get the pigmentation you see. No primer was used. 🙂

— Bones (oyster satin with pearl): This one is very accurate to the description of the color. I love using this as a highlight right beneath my brow bone. While the color doesn’t show up super well on my skintone, I would say this shade has good pigmentation.

— Grip (taupe matte with iridescent micro-glitter): The glitter is very micro in this shade, but I think you can pick it up a little toward the bottom of the swatch. This isn’t a very ‘exciting’ color, but can still come in handy to create a complete eye look. Since the glitter is so micro, you can use it in the crease.

— Deadbeat (black satin with iridescent micro-glitter): Another beautiful shade, though I haven’t reached for it as often as I like. The glitter in this one is more apparent, in my opinion, and I’m hesitant to use this in my outer corner. However, I would imagine this shadow would be perfect for creating a smokey eye!

— Beat Down (deep metallic violet with blue micro-glitter): This one swatches a bit differently than it appears in the pan. In the picture (and in person) I feel like it tends to pick up more blue than violet. It’s still beautiful, regardless, and the pigmentation is nice.

— Pandemonium (metallic plum with iridescent micro glitter): My eyes latched onto this color almost the instant I opened the palette! I love plum eyeshadows and the iridescence makes it look beautiful on the lid. The micro-glitter is much more noticeable in this shadow — when I applied it using my finger, I felt like glitter got everywhere!

— Framed (light neutral matte-satin): This shadow is so buttery soft, I love it! It’s a great shade to use all over the lid to give yourself a base for creating an eye look.

— Fastball (metallic peachy pink with pink micro-glitter): This color was a bit harder to swatch than the previous ones. As you can kind of see from the picture, I felt like more of the pinky micro-glitter was coming off than the actual peachy/pink of the shadow. With a good eyeshadow base, though, I’m sure this shadow would pop!

— 1985 (metallic fuchsia with fuchsia micro-glitter): Not much to say about this shadow – it’s pigmented, soft, and shows up true to the color in the pan! Very pretty if you like bright fuchsia colors!

— Underhand (burgundy-brown satin): This color swatches beautifully and because it’s a satin, I didn’t have to worry about glitter making me look like a unicorn under my eyes. 🙂 For any girl that is a neutral type of girl, this is the color they’ll love!

— Harlot (metallic lavender): This shadow is very beautiful for popping into your inner corner to brighten things up. I love metallic shadows, and I feel like this color more closely resembles a taupe than lavender. I’ve actually used this color with Underhand and it pared beautifully.

— Discreet (soft dusty mauve matte): This color is beautiful and, I found, also great to use as a base all over the eyelids. This shadow is the definition of buttery! So blendable, soft, and pigmented!

— Grasshopper (metallic emerald with green micro-glitter): This shadow is bold! It’s a very mermaid-y type of green that is not for the faint of heart! I am haven’t gotten around to using it on my lids yet, but look forward to trying my hand at it.

— C-Note (frosted green with micro-glitter): This shadow is more of a hunter-green and, therefore, something I am much more comfortable with. It swatches beautifully and the glitter really shows up a lot more, too.

— Arctic (bright teal with tonal sparkle): Any teal lovers out there? This is your color! As is evident from the swatch, I did NOT have to work hard to get this to show up. One swipe and I was done. Pigmentation is awesome and that sparkle isn’t micro anymore!

— Robbery (deep metallic brown-gunmetal): I love gunmetal shades, so this color spoke to me, of course, and was the first shadow I played with. I love the more metallic shades, because I don’t have to deal with as much glitter falling, so this color was easier to work with.

— Bitter (reddish brown matte): I love this color! All the mattes in this palette are very pigmented and soft (remind me of my beloved LORAC Pro shadows). While this is a warm-tone brown (something I usually don’t lean toward), I found that I really liked the way this looked blended out in my crease.

— Flame (bright orange w/ gold micro-glitter): Now this is a fun color! I feel like the glitter was chunkier in this one, but it was still pretty. The swatch doesn’t do this color justice, it’s so beautiful on the lid as it has a very duo-chrome type of finish.

— Low (brown matte w/iridescent micro-glitter): I didn’t really see this as matte, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Very pretty all over the lid, and it swatched well.

— Crowbar (black w/golden metallic pearl and micro-glitter): This color behaved very much like Flame in that the glitter in it felt chunky. The pigmentation still was nice, just beware the fall out! 🙂

— Delete (deep chestnut brown matte-satin): This is the deepest matte type of color in the palette, and therefore I use it on all my eyeshadows to darken up the outer V. I wish they had a darker brown, but that’s just me. Pigmentation is spot on!

I love the variety of shades and types of shadows in this palette. While I understand Urban Decay is known for just giving those bold, vibrant colors that you pop onto the center of your lid, I was pleasantly surprised to find that you can do whole looks just with this palette because they’ve given you several matte shades to work with.

Phyrra described this palette as one a neutral-lover would love, and I have to agree. I am not very adventurous when it comes to bold colors or glitter shades, but I do like to venture out on occasion. And Urban Decay’s Vice4 gives me exactly that.

One thing to be aware of with this palette is that the glittery shadows have a good amount of fall out. All the colors have some amount of fall out (which doesn’t really bother me, personally), but with the glitter shades, it’s a lot harder to clean up. I discovered that foundation cleaned it up well enough not to see it at the beginning of the day…but by the time I washed my face at the end of the night I felt like I was sparkling all over my face. Not the look I personally like to go for. Maybe I just need to buy a eyeshadow primer intended for glitter (Like Too Faced’s Glitter Glue) and that would help the glitter stay on my eyelid as opposed to my face, but I just want you to be aware of this.

So, should you get this palette? I say go for it! Especially if you’re like me — a neutral girl who wants to branch out…safely. 🙂 While the pricetag is high, it isn’t unreasonable for a high-end palette, in my opinion.

As I’ve already said, this palette is limited edition for the holidays, so don’t wait too long in deciding if you want this palette or not. 🙂 I don’t regret the $60 I spent on this palette one bit, and plan to put this palette to good use this next year. Even a neutral, matte-loving girl has to be bold and wild on occasion. 😉

Will you be getting the Vice4 palette? Are you a die-hard Urban Decay fan? Let me know what other palettes from them are worth the purchase!

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The products mentioned above were purchased with my own funds. I was not compensated in any way for writing this post. 🙂 All thoughts are 100% my own.

I hear you girl! I wasn’t sure how much use I would be able to get out of it, but it is a fabulous palette if you aren’t into SUPER-bright eyeshadows. It’s been so much fun trying out the colors in this palette!

Vice4 is a gorgeous-looking palette (including the packaging!) but I fear the shades are too colorful for me. But then I saw the beautiful looks that you created and they are not wild, they’re just stunning. Hmmmmm

The packaging is THE BOMB! I knew I had to get it just for the way they designed it, but I am so glad I also really like the shadows inside. You can probably go really wild and crazy with it, but I just like adding subtle pops of colors with it 🙂

This is one of those palettes where I look at and think WOW so stunning but I wouldnt actually use the shades. Then I saw the looks you created and how wearable they are and I wanna buy it now! Awesome post xxx

Glad seeing my eyeshadow looks were helpful to you! I don’t typically add them to my review posts, but I think I’ll start making that the norm now. It IS really nice to see what types of looks gals can create with a palette. 🙂

Fabulous review girl! Loved that you included both swatches and several eye looks! ♥ This palette doesnt specifically speak to me, none of the shadows really stand out to me. But I do have the Vice3 and love it.

I’ve never tried any of their Vice palettes before, so I knew I wanted to give this years palette a try. And I think it was a perfect introduction to Urban Decay’s bright eyeshadows for me. They’re bright, but not so much so that I won’t get good use out of this palette 🙂

This would be the PERFECT palette to branch out with, Sammi! I am SO not a bold-vibrant-eyeshadow type of girl and have been getting good use out of this palette. And, yes, the packaging is to die for! It looks amazing on my vanity 😉

You sound just like me, girl — I had planned to get the Vice4 palette this year, just because I’ve never tried any of their previous Vice palettes. But the moment I saw the packaging….my need for it increased like crazy, lol!